


With You Next to Me

by breathlikewind



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Anger, Angst, Betrayal, Established Relationship, Established Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter, Hurt, M/M, Post-Betrayal, Post-Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb, Post-Fall (Hannibal), Rage, Sort Of, Violent Thoughts, Will Knows, but can be set pretty much any time after season 1, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-10 11:26:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14736098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breathlikewind/pseuds/breathlikewind
Summary: Will doesn’t know how to sleep beside Hannibal.





	With You Next to Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [9_of_Clubs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/9_of_Clubs/gifts).
  * Inspired by [A Casual Cruelty](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1784629) by [9_of_Clubs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/9_of_Clubs/pseuds/9_of_Clubs). 



> I love 9_of_Clubs' Hand in Unlovable Hand series (and also the Mountain Goats song "No Children," for which it is named). This fic is inspired by what I imagine to be their contradictory, conflictory relationship post-fall

 

There’s the assumption, always present, that Hannibal will be the way he dies. (And oh God, Will’s become desensitized to that, hasn’t he?) After all, after everything, is it conceivable that Will should die by any other hand? 

No, that won’t happen. Nature won’t get a chance to end him.

They don’t sleep in the same bed most nights. Will doesn’t know how to sleep beside Hannibal. Even when they fall asleep together, he’ll jolt awake, remembering, instinctively, the danger. There _is_ no danger for him (Hannibal wouldn’t hurt him in his sleep, not like this). But that knowledge rarely makes it easier to sleep beside the man.

And he is a man, after everything is said. Not a monster, not a god. Or if he is those things, to certain people, he is still after everything, human. Will is learning that there are no monster and no gods other than people, and the stories people create.

(That does not make the monsters less monstrous.

Only, also, human.)

(People can learn to ignore anything.)

He tries not to watch Hannibal sleep, for more than one reason, but mostly because in these moments Will wants to _hurt_ him. Perhaps it’s part of seeing him so defenseless. More likely it is simply that these are the few times Will can watch him— _see_ him—without the heavy awareness, the distraction of the man staring back. And so Will can think, unimpeded. Can _feel_ , unimpeded.

And the result is—he wants to hurt this man.

Instead Will reaches out and strokes a thumb, gently, over Hannibal’s cheek.

He imagines shifting over, straddling Hannibal’s chest between his knees. He would lean in, face to face, close enough to feel Hannibal’s breath on his lips. He would slide his thumbs over the front of the man’s throat and—tighten his grip, for all he’s worth. Strangle the breathe from him. Hannibal would wake up, would—what? Grab at Will? Stare at him? Would Will be able to take him?

(A part of Will suspects Hannibal would simply still and roll over. Resign himself, quietly, daring Will to go through with it.)

(Would Will go through with it?)

It doesn’t matter really. Moot point. Will isn’t going to straddle him. Isn’t going to strangle him. Isn’t going to kill him—not tonight. Not without warning. And not in his sleep.

Will sighs and slides off the bed. He reaches up to his own neck, twirls a curl absently between fingers. He is halfway out the bedroom door when it occurs to him: will he wake up one of these nights, to find Hannibal around his throat?

(It’s very possible.)

(Right now, it doesn’t much matter.)

Will closes the door, softly, behind him.

 


End file.
